By Pavel Polityuk and Natalya Zinets
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich secured a coalition majority in parliament on Thursday and lined up a close ally for prime minister, moving to restore stability needed to tackle a deep economic crisis.
Parliament was expected to vote on 62-year-old former finance minister Mykola Azarov to head the government, nominated by the new coalition led by Yanukovich's Regions Party.
Azarov, seen as a safe pair of hands but no radical reformer, told parliament after his nomination his government's main task was to redraft and get approval for a 'realistic' 2010 budget.
"The country has been plundered, the coffers are empty, state debt has risen threefold," he said.
Yanukovich, narrowly elected on February 7 over bitter rival Yulia Tymoshenko, appeared to be acting quickly to consolidate power to end years of dysfunctional government and economic backsliding after the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution.
The president, whose victory tilted the former Soviet republic back towards Russia, proposed former Navy commander Mykhailo Yezhel as defence minister and Ukraine's ambassador to Moscow, Kostyantyn Khryshchenko, as foreign minister.
Parliament speaker Volodymyr Litvyn announced a new alliance of 235 deputies from the 450-member parliament had been formed.
It followed a vote of no-confidence last week that ousted Tymoshenko as prime minister.
"The coalition has been formed on the basis of an agreement signed by heads of the factions of the Regions Party, the Communist Party, the Litvyn bloc, the People's Party," Litvyn said.
Regions Party deputy Mykhailo Chechetov said the new coalition had met and chosen Russian-born Azarov, 62, as prime minister and a close aide of Yanukovich said he had signed the nomination which would be voted on later by parliament.
ORANGE REVOLUTION
Battered by the economic downturn, Ukraine needs a new government to adopt a delayed 2010 budget and restart talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a suspended $16.4 billion (10.95 billion pound) bail-out package.
The IMF will be watching closely how the government handles the budget, after a series of broken spending promises - backed by Yanukovich's Regions Party -- derailed the bail-out package.
Formation of a new coalition following Yanukovich's victory had been necessary to avoid snap elections.
Tymoshenko's departure as prime minister marks the end of five years of rule by the leadership which emerged from the 2004 pro-Western "Orange Revolution."
Azarov would give Yanukovich a reliable ruling partner after the infighting between Tymoshenko and former President Viktor Yushchenko.
But he continues to face a divided country of 46 million people -- split between a Russian-leaning south and east and a west and centre inclined more to the west.
(Writing by Richard Balmforth and Matt Robinson; editing by Ralph Boulton))
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